Equinor cleared to drill North Sea well duo

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has given Equinor drilling permits for two wells in the North Sea.

The NPD said on Tuesday that wells 15/3-12 S and 15/3-12 A would be drilled from the West Phoenix drilling rig after completing work in the UK sector.

The drilling program for the wells relates to the drilling of wildcat wells in production license 025 where Equinor is the operator with an ownership interest of 36 percent.

The other licensees are Neptune Energy with 25 percent, OMV with 24 percent, while Repsol holds the remaining 15 percent.

The area in this license consists of a part of block 15/3, and the well will be drilled about four kilometers south of the Sigrun discovery.

Production license 025 was awarded in 1969 in licensing round 2-A on the Norwegian Shelf. According to the NPD, these are the tenth and eleventh exploration wells to be drilled in the license.

As for the rig, West Phoenix is a semi-submersible drilling rig of the Moss Maritim CS50 type, operated by North Atlantic Drilling – formerly Seadrill Management.

To remind, Equinor used the West Phoenix to make a small oil discovery in production license 167 at the Utsira High in the North Sea back in July.

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